Strong start not enough for O'Neill football team

KINGSTON — So what if James I. O'Neill was the underdog — again — a spot the Raiders have come to love during the Class C state playoffs.

JUSTIN RODRIGUEZ

KINGSTON — So what if James I. O'Neill was the underdog — again — a spot the Raiders have come to love during the Class C state playoffs.

Here was O'Neill, about to go up two touchdowns on favored Hoosick Falls midway through the second quarter in the semifinals at Dietz Stadium. The knockout blow might not have been on tap, but an O'Neill score would have certainly given the Raiders even more leverage.

However, the seemingly gimme touchdown never materialized, the result of an O'Neill fumble. The Raiders never scored again and Hoosick Falls answered with the final 29 points of the game. Final score: Hoosick Falls 43, O'Neill 21 on a seemingly-promising afternoon for the Raiders that went bad quickly.

"It wasn't a matter of what happened. I can't even describe it," said O'Neill running back Jerry Nasi, who rushed for 182 yards and three touchdowns. He finished his senior season with 2,072 yards. "I don't know. It stinks, that's all I can say. But this team still won't be forgotten at O'Neill. It still was a special year."

O'Neill (9-3) became the first Section 9 team to win a Class C state playoff game since Highland in 1996, defeating Westchester County's Woodlands 35-18 in the quarterfinals on Nov. 9. Trying to become the first Section 9 Class C team to reach a state championship game, the Red Raiders seemed on the verge of making history. O'Neill led Hoosick Falls, the second-ranked Class C team in the state, 21-7 after one quarter on touchdown runs of 63, 8 and 1 yards by Nasi.

Nasi's 63-yarder came on O'Neill's first play from scrimmage. Before Saturday, Hoosick Falls (12-0) had outscored opponents 202-0 in the first quarter. Brad Burns scored on a 2-yard run to pull Hoosick Falls within 21-14 three minutes into the second quarter. O'Neill drove right back up the field, ready to regain the advantage in a developing shootout.

However, O'Neill fullback Aaron Kilner was stripped of the ball on a run at Hoosick Falls' 4-yard line with 5:16 left in the second quarter. His forward progress appeared to be stopped, but linebacker Mark Hackett picked up the fumble for the Panthers at the 4.

"I thought his forward progress was stopped," O'Neill coach Anthony Finochio said. "But there were a few times when Burns' forward progress was stopped and they let it go. You don't lose a game on that call. We had some times we didn't overcome adversity and teams that overcome adversity make it to the (Carrier) Dome."

The Kilner play certainly wasn't the game-changer. The sequence that followed was. Set up by a 69-yard run by quarterback Billy Pine, Burns scored on a 16-yard run 1:06 after Kilner's fumble. Hoosick Falls went up 22-21 on a botched extra point that turned into a two-point conversion. Holder Randy Tutunjian lost control of the ball on the exchange and, under pressure, hit Burns with a pass in the back of the end zone.

Pine connected with Tutunjian for an 8-yard score, set up by an O'Neill quarterback Keegan West interception, with 11 seconds left in the first half to make it 29-21. Hoosick Falls opened the second half with an onside kick that deflected off an O'Neill player and was recovered by the Panthers. Burns parlayed that into a 20-yard score and he put up his fifth touchdown on a 7-yard run, with 4:47 remaining.

Burns, a senior, just missed going over 2,000 rushing yards on the season. He had 170 against O'Neill and now has 1,969 this fall.

"Hoosick Falls definitely came out slow, but then they turned it on," West said. "I think they underestimated us. Once they figured out what we can do, they keyed on us. Once they got momentum, they just took advantage of us. It was weird, they definitely started getting more physical. They made it difficult."

jrodriguez@th-record.com

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